Defiance
by Phoenix618
Summary: In a world where benders are hunted down and killed, where benders must stay hidden to survive, what happens when they begin a secret society bent on protecting all benders and taking down the world that doesn’t have a place for them?
1. Alone

Summary

In a world where benders are hunted down and killed, where benders must stay hidden to survive, what happens when they begin a secret society bent on protecting all benders and taking down the world that doesn't have a place for them?

Chapter 1

Alone

For months she had been alone. Running. Katara was alone. Lost. Her mother had been taken away and killed because she could bend the water around her. Katara of course being so much like her mother inherited the bending. After weeks of hiding out in the forests surrounding the earth kingdom she found an abandoned house. The house had two floors and a basement, three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a kitchen which was unfortunately fully stocked when the people left or were forced out meaning lots of rotten food and bugs.

On the outside of the house it looked like a bomb had gone off. Shutters were dangling, the paneling outside of the house which had at one time been white were a dingy yellow. There were vines growing up the sides. All in all, the house looked like crap. So here she was cleaning up as much as she could without real cleaning supplies besides her bending. She got rid of all the bugs and rotten food at least. She opened the window a crack to let the kitchen air out.

She sighed. _I miss Sokka and dad._ She thought. She left them in the middle of the night refusing to put them in danger. They couldn't hide her forever. She knew that. The world was against what she was. So here she stayed until she had to run again.


	2. The Tough Cookie

The Tough Cookie

It was just after nightfall. Katara only left her home after nightfall, it was the only safe way. No one could find her easily and she would have to cover of the dark to help her hide. She couldn't believe her luck in finding this house. In the back of the house there was a small garden. Of course now the garden was a bit wild and vines were everywhere but still she could find various vegetables and fruits to eat and cook with.

This one night she was in the garden filling a small wicker basket with some produce when she heard a crunch in the bushes. Katara froze in place staring at the bushes wide eyed. She wasn't afraid. Then a little girl appeared out of the bushes. The girl looked harmless. "Who are you?" Katara asked sternly.

"I should ask you the same question. But I can tell you're a bender. Water bender?" The little girl said.

Katara looked at her suspiciously. "How did you know that?" Katara asked.

The little girl smirked. "I didn't, you just told me, but don't worry I'm an earth bender. And I need a place to stay. The forest is great and all but a bed would be great and that house probably has a bed. I'm Toph by the way."

"Katara." Katara introduced herself and let Toph inside and settled her into the room across from hers.

After a few hours, when Katara was in her room, a thought occurred to her. She walked across the hall to Toph's new room.

She gave a light knock to the door.

"Hey Toph I forgot to ask, are you hungry or anything?"

"Nah I'm alright."

"Ok." Katara turned to leave.

"Wait!"

Katara turned back to Toph.

"We should probably get to know each other a little ey?" Toph said.

Katara nodded. "Ask away."

"Ok so how old are you?"

"sixteen." Katara answered.

"Ok, where are you from?"

"Originally from the southern water tribe, but I stowed away on a cargo ship to the earth kingdom and I've been living in the forest and hiding in barns and such until I found this place. I got really lucky." Katara smiled faintly.

"What do you look like?"

Katara frowned, then understanding flitted across her face. Toph was blind.

"Oh, um, well, I have long, wavy brown hair, blue eyes and tan skin."

"You sound pretty."

Katara scoffed. "So what about you Toph what's your story?"

And Thus Began the friendship of Katara and Toph.


	3. Past Memories

A/N: How is this story so far? Let me know how to improve and if you have any idea's on what should happen. Or seriously if this story is dumb or getting dumb let me know I can always revise and fix loose ends! :D

Past Memories

_So Toph is a fourteen year old runaway._ Katara thought. She shook her head and laid down on her bed pulling her blanket up to her neck.

*Katara's Dream/Memory*

"_Katara! Katara!" A six year old Sokka called. _

"_What!?" A four year old Katara yelled back. _

"_Zuko's ship just got here! C'mon! We gotta escort him!" _

"_Kay!" Katara ran after her brother out of the palace gates. _

"_Hey! You two slow down!" Katara and Sokka's mother yelled to them while walking down the hall with her husband, Hakoda's arm around her. _

"_Zuko!" Katara ran up to a seven year old Zuko engulfing him in a hug. _

CRASH!

Katara's dream was cut short by the sound of a window breaking. Katara jumped up and rushed to Toph's room and flung the door open. She was there sound asleep. Katara shut the door and rushed to the source of the sound. As she got closer she slowed down her steps and hid in the shadows.

There stood a guy his back to her. From what she could see he was muscular and had hair that probably would hang in his eyes. She watched him for a few minutes until…CREAK. It came from the top of the stairs. Toph.

"Hey Sugar Queen that you in the kitchen?"

The guy turned around and started heading towards the stairs. Katara froze him to the wall when he passed her.

"Who are you?" Katara asked in a fierce tone.


	4. The Stranger

The Stranger

He melted the ice from his body and stuck his hand out as if to shake.

"Lee."

"Katara." Katara grasped his outstretched hand and shook while he looked at her wide eyed.

"Katara?! Princess Katara?" Lee asked.

"How do you know that? Who are you?"

"Well I'm not Lee but that's what I tell strangers but since you're not a stranger, my name's Zuko."

Katara's eyes widened and a huge smile spread across her face. "Zuko!" She jumped into his arms just like she had all those years ago.

"Woah, woah, woah! Katara! You forgot to mention you were royalty and what the hell's going on? You know Mr. breaks and enters?" Toph said from behind Katara.

"Well Zuko and I have been friends for years. The last time I saw him I was four. It was about six months before people with bending were deemed dangerous and they started hunting us." Katara said.

"Hm…interesting well I'm hungry now so FEED ME please." Toph stated.

"I'd be happy to Toph BUT I can't exactly see much it's still dark."

"I can help you out there, got any candles?" Zuko asked.

"Um…no we're really low on supplies." Katara said.

"Ok no big deal I'll be the candle."

Toph laughed. "Corny much?"

He growled at her.

"HAHA! Did you just GROWL at me!! Woo! Ok your nickname is soooo gonna be Sparky."

He rolled his eyes and went back to helping Katara.

He walked over a stool that sat by the kitchen counter, sat there and lit a flame.

"So...uh…how've you been, I mean besides all of the hunting down and all that?" Katara began.

He shrugged. "Yeah, not that great, but I found you so I guess that's a plus and what's with the kid?"

"Toph? I found her just after dark. Yeah, she scared me a little I thought I was going to have to kill a bender hunter."

That caught Zuko's attention right away. "Bender Hunter! You've encountered them?!"

"Only once, it was ok though there was a full moon."

That eased Zuko's mind…a little. Katara turned and caught sight of Zuko's scar. She sighed.

"What happened? Does it hurt?" She said and reached out and gently placed her hand on his scared face. He tensed when she touched his scared face but relaxed into her touch.

"No it doesn't hurt. It was an…accident."

She sighed. "I know you're lying about it being an accident but you don't have to tell me about it." She kissed his scarred cheek and went back to work.

He blushed. _Should I tell her about what our families did before the hunting began?_ He thought. _Nah! It's probably null and void with what's happened._ He decided.

A/N: OOOH! What does Zuko know that Katara doesn't? Does Katara know??? Find out next chapter.


	5. Proposals

Proposals

(Not the kind you think)

_Days after Zuko and Toph's Arrival…_

"Meat would be lovely Katara lets find some." Toph said sarcastically.

"Ugh! Toph! We'd have to go into town for that! And don't you have to have one of those authorization passes so that they know you're not a bender?"

"We could hunt." Toph suggested.

"Hunt what, a Boar-Q-Pine? It's almost winter too so all the fish are swimming downstream so we would have to catch a lot of them, then how would we keep them from going bad? And we're gonna get tired of eating fish-"

"Sugar Queen! You're a water bender! You can freeze the fish and maybe we can go to town." Toph said.

"Well we're gonna need authorization passes. But how are we gonna get those?" Katara asked.

"We take them." Zuko said making his appearance in the kitchen doorway known.

***

Katara and Zuko left the rundown house in the cover of nightfall. Toph stayed behind to protect the house since hiding benders seemed to pop up. After Zuko arrived Katara set the rule that SOMEONE had to be in the house just in case of the occurrence of a "visitor."

So there Katara and Zuko were rapidly approaching the town's huge walls. It was obvious that year ago these gates were made by earth benders.

"Oh yeah, it's ok to hunt down and kill benders but they can live in what they built." Katara hissed sarcastically.

"They're blinded by what the rulers are telling every non bender." Zuko whispered back.

They climbed up the gates and paused before climbing down on the other side. Something wasn't right. It was a little too easy. That's when Zuko noticed the huge search lights and they were about to swerve back into their direction.

"Katara we need to get into the shadows. NOW!" Zuko whispered seriously.

Katara followed his lead, jumping down and running behind a trash pile in the back of what looked like a bakery.

"Nobility would probably have several extra passes right?" Katara whispered.

"Yeah, that way we can get them without them noticing their gone and we won't risk a search or investigation."

"Right, let's go."

With that Katara dashed off behind the closest shop and turned the corner heading towards a stone pathway while avoiding the searchlight. Zuko followed closely behind. Katara stopped abruptly.

"What is it?" Zuko asked peering around her.

"Guards."

Zuko nodded and unsheathed his twin blades. Katara stopped him.

"No! Then there WILL be an investigation later. No fighting or knocking them out. WAIT! We can knock them out! I got it. We need to find alcohol first." She peered around her at the different shops.

Zuko did the same. He tapped her shoulder and pointed in the direction of a closed restaurant. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Trust me, wait here." Zuko ghosted through the shadows darting over to the building, dodging the searchlight. He ran around to the backdoor of the restaurant and unlocked the door using one of his blades. He ran up to the cabinet that would most likely hold the liquor. JACKPOT! He found the sake. (If you didn't know it's just a Japanese alcoholic beverage anyways back to the story)

He left the restaurant making sure everything was the way it was before he broke in, door locked and all.

"It's about time. I thought you got caught or something." Katara said.

"Ok you take the guy on the left, I got the right."

Katara nodded and darted through the shadows. She created a rock solid ice ball to knock the guard out. Zuko on the other hand used the handle of his sword on the back of the other guards head. They both poured the sake down the guard's throat and left the bottle in ones hand and leaned them against each other.

"Those were without doubt the worst guards ever. How can you not notice someone sneaking up on you like that?" Katara sighed.

They kept on going up the path. There were two more guards when they got up to the noble area but luckily for them, the guards were already drunk. They obviously didn't take their job seriously, but after all a bender would have to be stupid or crazy to attempt something of this capacity right? Katara and Zuko like to think of it as brilliant.

"Idiots" Zuko muttered stepping over the guards. Katara followed suite.

They ran around the back of the closest house. This was it, finally they had made it this far. One problem, this family took precautions it seemed. There were bells over the back door. The windows were little too.

"You've gotta go alone." Zuko stated.

Katara sighed. "Ok." Zuko unlocked the window with his blade and gave Katara a boost.

She lowered herself into the home. She took a glace around. She was in what looked like a living room. The passes would be in a study most likely. She looked around. Today was her lucky day the study door, which was even labeled with a gold door label was right across the room. Katara tiptoed over. She silently and slowly turned the handle. It was locked. She sighed and pulled a dagger that was strapped to her leg and carefully unlocked the door.

She headed over to the desk. It was cluttered with all types of papers. Whoever lived here must have been a diplomat or something. She opened the smallest drawer and got lucky. They were there almost a hundred of them. This guy must be paranoid that he'd lose them or forget one somewhere or something. Oh he was definitely a diplomat these passes had the mark of all the nations meaning this guy could go wherever he wanted. Perfect. Katara nabbed five of them and left locking the door back and leaving everything as it was.

"How many did you get?"

"Five and they're usable for all nations so were good."

"Ok, well I found a shortcut while you were in there; we can just climb up on the roof and jump over to that ledge and jump over the wall." Zuko stated.

"Are you crazy? Did you forget about the searchlight?" Katara hissed.

"It's simple, go quickly."

"I have a better idea I'll water bend us over." Katara said.

"That's too dangerous."

"And what you're suggesting isn't?" Katara hissed. Zuko was already doing what he had in mind by the time she finished her statement.

"Men." She huffed and followed him.

They made it and dashed off into the forest back to their hideout.

***

A/N: So what do ya think? Let me know :D


	6. Boredom Leading to Discovery

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I'm working on making the chapters longer! I promise!

Boredom Leading to Discovery

"Hey Katara?"

"Yeah Toph?"

"How do you know Sparky exactly?"

Katara sighed, even though those were her favorite memories of happy days they reminded her how much her life had changed since them.

"Well Toph, Zuko and I are kinda…betrothed."

"Woah! What?"

Katara smiled. "Yeah Toph, it was kinda done before I was even born. I was still in the womb, but I never did mind. He's a great friend, and plus with what's going on with the world it's most likely null and void."

"I thought you guys were a little too chummy, but now I see why, YOU LOVE EACH OTHER!" Toph laughed as she felt Katara's heart skip a beat.

"Shut up Toph! We do not!"

"Right that's why you make googily eyes at each other."

"Toph! How would you even know if we do anything of the sort, which we don't!"

"I sense things." Toph smirked. "Oh by the way your boyfriend is coming."

Before Katara could turn around to retort Toph was gone.

"So you do remember, I didn't think you would." Zuko spoke from the doorway.

Katara internally flinched. This was a little awkward.

"Um, yeah I do." She turned around to face him. He was a lot closer than she had thought he was. He began leaning in as if to kiss her.

"You have a leaf in your hair." He removed the leaf and sat down on the stool in the kitchen.

Katara's cheeks tinted a light pink and she carried on making dinner.

***

It was just after dinner. Katara was in her room reading a book. She had found a bookcase in the basement while searching the house. Zuko was in his room meditating and Toph was in her room making sculptures out of rather large rocks she had brought inside.

The house was quiet.

The quiet was driving Katara insane, the book she was reading wasn't all that interesting either. So she decided to do a bit of searching around the house. She never really did look around the house she just focused on cleaning it up.

_I guess I'll start with the basement, I only ever go to the bookcase down there I've never really looked around. _She thought. She hopped off her bed and began her journey to the basement.

As soon as she opened her bedroom door and took that first step, WHAM! She ran right into someone.

"Watch it!"

"Ugh, Zuko what are you doing? Shouldn't you be meditating or something?" Katara huffed.

Zuko raised an eyebrow. "Hm, I was on my way to the kitchen but I'm suddenly interested in what you're up to. What _are_ you up to? You seem a little…secretive."

"n…nothing, I'm just….none of your business, ugh fine, I'm just gonna snoop around the house."

"Snoop around the house? For what?" Zuko's brow furrowed in confusion.

"Well think about it, this house is a little too convenient. I didn't think about it before now because I was in awe of it for so long, but really who was here before us? Where did they go? What happened to them? No one would just leave a house like this vacant."

"Ok, why was that so hard to tell me?" Zuko asked.

"You're not going to try to stop me?"

"No I'm just going with you." Zuko stated then began walking down to the basement. Katara rolled her eyes but followed.

***

They had been in the basement looking around for a while. So far there was nothing interesting except for the huge statue of the first avatar placed against the wall. Zuko was sitting at the desk in the corner of the room going through the draws.

Katara felt almost as if the statue was calling to her, like it was begging her to touch it. She placed one of her small hands in the statue's outstretched hand. There was a faint blue glow coming from Katara's eyes. She reached out her other hand to place in the statues other hand.

Zuko looked up from the desk just in time to see Katara's whole body glow blue and freeze in place. His eyes widened. He had only heard of this happening with avatars. She was on a spirit world journey.


	7. Realizations in What Must Become

Realizations in What Must Become

She could feel the wind whipping around her, no, not her, her spirit. Confusion swept over her. Where was she?

She took a look around. It looked like your typical forest. It would've been breathtaking to her had she not been so confused and suspicious of her surroundings. She spotted something, a blue dragon. She recognized this dragon. Why? The knowledge hit her like a lightening bolt. It was Avatar Roku's dragon. He had called her here through the first avatar's statue.

She walked to where the dragon was. It laid down for her in a means to tell her to sit upon it. She took the memo and climbed aboard. It took off much faster than she had expected. They flew for a while until they came to a gentle halt. The dragon landed in front of Roku, bending down to allow Katara to get off.

Katara got off and bowed to Roku. Roku motioned for her to sit.

"Princess Katara I have called you here for a purpose." Roku began.

Katara nodded.

"Princess Katara you have been chosen to carry out a mission. You and you alone will have to take on a position of leadership. You finding this house was no coincidence, it was fate for you to find it. The current avatar is only a child. He cannot be in a leadership position. He simply isn't ready. We, his past lives, have guided him to you. He should be arriving soon. You must lead benders to stand up for themselves and take back their rights as human beings. Their hope has been diminished. Give them hope. Remind them what they should fight for."

With that Katara's spirit was sucked back to its home in Katara's body. She inhaled deeply. She stepped away from the statue and took Zuko's vacant seat. Zuko stared at her wide eyed. She didn't say anything for a few minutes. Zuko began to worry. He turned the chair so he could kneel in front of her.

"Katara?"

She didn't answer, just stared ahead of her with a blank expression.

"Katara?" He took her face between his palms and made her face him.

"Zuko, I…I…I've been assigned a mission."

"What kind of mission? Who assigned it?" Zuko asked his face showing his worry and slight confusion.

"I have to…no it's not just that I have to, I want to."

"Want to what? Come on, details are great. Want to let me know some?" Zuko said exasperatedly.

"I'm going to lead all benders to take back what's rightfully theirs, their rights as human beings." Katara said determined.

"Katara you can't! Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"

"Zuko, don't you want your life back? And plus, you're going to be with me every step of the way." With that she walked off to bed, leaving Zuko with his jaw hanging open almost hitting the ground.

But the more he stood there and thought about it, he knew she was right. He couldn't help the slight smirk that appeared on his face. She was still the same determined, brave, beautiful girl that he had been best friends with all those years ago.

***

It was a few hours later when Katara realized that the avatar, when he arrived, was going to need a room to sleep in.

"_Crap!"_ She thought to herself. Toph isn't the sharing type so she wouldn't move in with me and Zuko, well, he's not going to share his room with a what, twelve year old? How old is the avatar? Roku only said he was a child. She sighed. She would just have to deal with it when the time came or just talk about it with Toph and Zuko in the morning. For now she needed rest.

***

Aang sat aboard Appa traveling by the cover of nightfall. Appa didn't really need to hide, flying bison were few in population but seen from time to time, but Aang could not be seen. His arrows were a dead give away to what he was. After all the tradition is…or was that when an air bender mastered air bending that they received the tattoos. So there he was flying with Appa and his lemur Momo, his oldest and most cherished friends.

***

"Ok let's go over all we know about the enemy." Katara began.

"Does anyone know who is leading in each nation?" Toph asked.

"In the fire nation, Zhao seems to have taken the position. My father has become a figure head; he even takes potions to hide his bending, and so does Azula. Zhao does as well, but his main idea is probably to be the last fire bender. He wants to be some artifact or something. It's ridiculous." Zuko stated.

"Well for the water tribes it would seem Auntie Hama has the same ideas as Zhao just more extreme. She has turned the tribes against my family. The people still hold love for my family somewhat though, but that's mainly because only my mother was known to be a bender and they took her away. They never knew about my bending so I ran before then could find out. My remaining family is trapped in the palace. It's nearly impossible to escape…for them." Katara looked to Toph.

Toph gave a snort. "Really, who else would start something like that in the earth kingdom?"

"Long Feng." Zuko and Katara answered in unison.

Everyone had heard over the years how shady Long Feng was. So it made sense that he would do something like this.

"Bingo, and you know what? I was fine living at home. My parents kept me so sheltered; no one even knows I exist. They hid me away from the general public, but that's not me. I wouldn't ever be prosecuted at all. I'm proud of what I am so I left the Bei Fong house and to tell the truth I couldn't be happier." Toph proclaimed proudly.

Katara's eyes lit up. "Toph you're a genius!"

Zuko gave Katara a _"what the hell?"_ look.

"Thanks Sugar Queen. Care to enlighten me as to why I'm a genius. I mean I know that I am and all but-"

"You were sheltered! No one knew about your bending!" Katara exclaimed.

"Uh…did you get hit in the head and loose a few brain cells or something?" Toph asked sarcastically.

"No I see where she's going with this. There are other benders out there blending in with non benders, hidden in plain sight, or that 'don't exist' meaning their hiding under false identities." Zuko said.

"Looks like I've found out my step number one. Find the benders in hiding." Katara stated.

"And how do you propose to do that?" Toph asked.

"In style of course." With that Katara pulled out Zuko's blue spirit mask.

"Hey! How'd you get that?" Zuko asked.

"It's amazing what you miss when you're sleeping Zuko." Katara said smugly.

"Why were you in my room while I was sleeping?!!" Zuko exclaimed.

"Don't worry about it." Katara smirked.

Toph rolled her eyes and got up from the table they were all seated at and stalked off to her room.

"You know going into people's rooms when they're asleep is stalker behavior right?" Zuko said while smirking.

"Oh shut up you're flattered." She said and then jokingly patted his cheek and then up the stairs she went to her bedroom.

She would never tell Zuko why she was really in his room. She had heard him moan and thought he was in pain. It turned out he was having a nightmare. He kept muttering over and over "Mom come back." Every time she heard him utter those words she felt her heart lurch. She quietly walked over to him and moved his hair out of his eyes. That action had somehow soothed him in his sleep and he calmed. That was when she caught sight of the mask. She hadn't meant to take it but it was still in her hands when he began to wake up. So without thinking she rushed out of the room, mask in hand.

Oops!

***

A/N: Ok this one should be longer. I actually took the time to make sure it was longer.


	8. Practice Makes Perfect

Practice Makes Perfect

Zuko had been gone all morning. Then as soon as he made an appearance he had a sack full of weapons and went straight down to the basement and started making it into some sort of fighting arena.

Katara was perched at the top of the bottom of the stairs leading to the basement watching. Soon enough Toph joined her just listening to Zuko grunt and break a sweat working himself to the bone trying to make this arena. Katara figured he was going through some kind of teenaged crisis like older men have their midlife crisis.

"You could help you know." He grunted out while attempting to move the avatar statue.

"Explain why you're doing this first." Katara said.

"We need to train." He answered simply.

"We can't bend in the house. We could cause damage." Katara said.

"Yeah Sparky, I'm gonna have to agree with Sweetness on that one. I'd rather not have the house burnt to a crisp, flooded or caught in a landslide." Toph said.

Zuko rolled his eyes. "What happens if your bending gets taken away? You need to know how to sword and fist fight too. Azula's friend, Ty Lee, can take away bending. She hits pressure points on her opponent and they are left virtually defenseless if they can't defend themselves."

"Ok I'm convinced what do you want me to do?" Toph asked.

Zuko looked down at the floor. It was a rough stone floor.

"Toph do you think you could make the floor really smooth like marble?" Zuko asked.

Toph cracked her knuckles. "Consider it done."

"What should I do?" Katara asked.

"There's a floor mat in that bag. When Toph is done with the floor spread it out."

"Alright floor's done anything else?" Toph asked.

"Do you think you could make pegs in the wall to hold weapons or maybe statues to hold them?" Zuko asked.

Statues were her specialty. She made a few statues around the room and put a few pegs in the wall. After putting all the swords, daggers, and other weapons away they were done with all of their renovations.

Zuko smirked. "Hey Katara, wanna spar?"

She smiled wickedly. "I would love to."

***

What was it with this house? It was as if it were calling to him. "Appa land over there, I think we need to go to that house."

Appa did as he was instructed. Aang hopped off and trudged up to the house.

***

Toph's ears perked up. She walked to the back door and placed her hand on the ground. Someone was heading towards the house. The person was way too light on their feet to not be a bender. She stepped outside. As soon as she did she was welcomed with a gasp.

"It's ok air bender." Toph said.

"Who are you? How'd you know?" Aang asked. He was nervous.

"I'm an earth bender, the greatest earth bender alive. Anyways come on in. I don't think you friend over there is gonna fit though. Oh and I'm Toph. Zuko and Katara are downstairs sparing. Zuko is a fire bender and Katara's a water bender."

Aang nodded dumbly and followed Toph.

Toph led him down to where Katara and Zuko were sparing. (This is what Zuko and Katara's sparing is like .com/watch?v=9OxQ-2gR1DU&feature=PlayList&p=EB2A59307E214BC2&index=0 Katara would be the girl in all white. In the clip they are both girls. Just imagine that it's Zuko and Katara. But that's what their fight looks like.)

"Woah! They're going to kill each other!" Aang exclaimed.

Both Zuko and Katara looked up at the sound of the new voice. They ended their sparing with a bow to each other.

"You must be the avatar, I'm Katara." Katara extended her hand to the young avatar.

"Aang." Aang introduced herself with a big smile, shaking Katara's hand.

"Zuko." Zuko introduced himself and shook Aang's hand.

"So who won?" Toph asked.

"I did." Zuko and Katara answered simultaneously, they both immediately launched into an argument about who won, which then began a rematch.

"Well, this looks like the beginning of a great team." Toph said smirking when she felt Aang's heart beat quicken. He really thought they were aiming to kill each other. Toph laughed allowed.

A/N: This chapter may seem pointless with the random sword fighting, but it's going to be important later and YOU'LL SEE WHY!!! I'm excited for that. It's coming later! Hope you guys liked this chapter!


	9. A Group Trip to Town

A Group Trip to Town

"Hey Katara, How'd you know I was coming?" Aang asked sitting across from her.

"Well Avatar Roku told me you were." Katara smiled.

"Oh."

"Come on guys were going into town." Toph announced walking into the room dragging Zuko by the arm.

Zuko groaned.

"I guess the mission begins." Aang stated.

***

They had been wandering around for a while. Being in the earth kingdom, their targets were earth benders. Toph could distinguish benders and non benders just by the way a person walked. Earth benders tend to stomp a bit.

"Anything?" Aang asked Toph for what seemed like the millionth time.

"For the last time Twinkletoes, NOT YET!" She shrieked.

Toph and Aang walked off in a different direction, while Zuko and Katara turned a corner and walked down a path leading to the center of town.

"Please! He's my husband! We have a child on the way! You can't take him away!" A woman screamed as her husband was being dragged away by guards.

Zuko and Katara watched from the side of a building. The man left huge tracks in the ground while being dragged away. It took about five guards to completely drag him away.

"You better hope that child isn't a bender." A guard sneered at the woman who was now kneeling on the ground crestfallen.

The guard walked away laughing to himself. He was an impossibly cruel man. Katara rushed to the woman and helped her up from the ground.

"Are you alright?" Katara asked.

"They took him away! They took him to that retched prison!" The woman said void of any emotion.

"Here let us help you home." Katara said.

The woman pointed in the direction of her home. Katara nodded and she and Zuko walked in that direction.

The woman led them inside into a sitting room.

"Thank you for helping me back there." The woman said, a sad smile on her face.

"It was no problem at all. If you don't mind me asking, where do they take the benders?" Katara asked.

The woman sighed painfully. "They….they're taken to a prison on the outskirts of town. It's terrible; they just torture them until…until…" The woman began to cry. Katara rushed to comfort her.

"We'll get your husband back." Zuko said standing up and facing the window, his back facing the woman and Katara.

"But you're just children!" The woman exclaimed.

"We'll get your husband back, trust us." Zuko said turning and nodding to the woman.

***

"What's the plan?" Katara asked Zuko as soon as they left the woman's home.

"You're the ringleader, you tell me." Zuko smirked.

Katara rolled her eyes. "Infiltrate the prison, knock out the guards, set free all the prisoners, am I right?"

"Correct." Zuko patted her on the head like she was a little kid just to annoy her.

"What do you want us to do?" Aang asked motioning between him and Toph.

"You guys should probably get the prisoners away from the prison. Zuko and I will get them out. You two just get them away."

"At nightfall then?" Toph asked.

"Yep."

***

"Uh, guys, I'm starting to think this was a really bad idea." Aang said nervously.

There were guards in every spot you could think of surrounding the prison. The prison itself looked impenetrable.

"Cool it twinkle toes, there's an easy solution. I'll plow the place with a huge bolder. Katara and Zuko can take out the guards, and you get everyone to safety." Toph said.

"Um, Toph, I'm not saying that that was a really bad idea but, the prison is made of metal and I'm pretty sure a bolder isn't going to do much except dent it. And we don't want them to know were here before we're already inside. If I had my way they wouldn't know at all, but I know that's inevitable so let's just keep a low profile for as long as we can." Katara spoke.

"Katara's right, but I'm still trying to work out the details. I wasn't expecting it to be this guarded." Zuko said.

"Hm…GOT IT! Toph, there's a huge hill over there, do you think you could create a landslide? Aang, you can air bend the guards into the landslide and when the guards are in it, Toph can you solidify the landslide once the guards are in it. Then Zuko and I will invade. That work for everyone?" Katara asked.

"That could work, but what about the guards on the inside? We can't possibly take them all out. There will be too many." Zuko said.

"Um, maybe we should take a guards uniform, but their uniforms aren't like the fire nation ones. Our faces won't be covered. So…what's plan B? You know what? Screw it let's just go in with everything we've got. Toph after you do everything out here make a huge gaping hole in the prison please. Ok let's start…now!" Katara said.

Toph made the landslide. Aang blew the guards in. As soon as Katara and Zuko made it inside poison darts were launched at them. Katara captured them in a water whip then flung them back at the guards.

"This way." Zuko said running down a narrow hallway. They ran for a bit before coming upon a double door. Zuko did a swiping kick effectively knocking down the door. The sight inside was truly horrifying. Children were chained to the walls suspended above the ground.

Katara scrambled to the kids using a dagger to set them free. Zuko did the same on the other side of the room. Some of the children were too weak to support their own body weight. They got the children out to Aang and then went for the rest of the prisoners.

***

They were down to their last prison cell. Before they could make it to the door, daggers, darts and arrows flew their way. Zuko cut the arrows to pieces in midair using his twin blades. Katara saw Zuko rush to attack the guards and that was the last thing she saw before everything went black.

A/N: Well what do you think of this chapter? Oh next chapter is going to be big on zutara! It might even be up a little while after this one so check up on it!


	10. Letters and Rapture

A/N: SHOUT OUT TO MY BEST BUDDY TAMMY WHO KEEPS ME OUT OF TROUBLE!

Letters and Rapture

_It's windy. Why's it so windy?_ Katara thought. Her closed eyes crinkled and her eye brows pressed together. She opened one eye and shrieked.

"Sorry!" Aang said. He had been leaning over her just staring. "Zuko she's up." Aang yelled.

Zuko whipped around from his position on Appa's head and rushed to her engulfing her in an embrace.

"Zuko you're crushing me." Katara said tiredly. He loosened his grip but didn't let her go. Katara looked around. "Why are we on Appa? What happened?" She asked.

"Well Sweetness, we had to relocate, no big deal." Toph answered.

"That doesn't completely answer my question." Katara said in an annoyed and tired tone.

Zuko picked Katara up and placed her in his lap, holding her like a baby and brushed the hair out of her face tucking it behind her ear.

"You got hit with one of those poisonous darts. I got out the rest of the prisoners. We're on our way to the eastern air temple. The people we helped escape are our allies, they're going to help us fight back. We're keeping contact with them by messenger hawk." Zuko explained. He felt Katara shiver and heated his body up a bit and pulled her closer.

"Katara meet Hawky, Hawky Katara." Aang said.

_Hawky? Why does that sound familiar?_ Then it struck her. Sokka's messenger hawk's name is Hawky.

"Is that-"

"Sokka's messenger hawk, yeah he sent that bird to find you. I'm surprised it actually complied to what Sokka wanted it to do. You got pretty far." Zuko cut her off. "There's a message too." Zuko said handing her a scroll.

Katara read fast. Her eyes flying over the parchment. The biggest smile spread across her face.

"Did you reply? Tell him where we're going?" Katara asked excitedly.

"Are you crazy Sugarqueen! Of course we didn't! That's too risky and you know it."

"Oh right." Katara said crestfallen.

"But what we can do is have him meet us somewhere other than where we're staying to be sure it's really him. If not we escape on Appa and keep heading to the air temple." Zuko suggested.

Katara smiled the hugest smile and kissed him on the cheek. "Let's do it. In the letter he said he was in kyoshi."

Aang steered off in that direction.

***

It was later into the night. Toph was sleeping under her earth tent and Aang on Appa's huge tail with Momo snuggled under his arm. Katara sighed from her spot on Appa's saddle.

"Can't sleep?"

Katara turned around and came face to face with Zuko.

"No you?"

"Nope." He shrugged and sat up moving closer to Katara.

"So…" Zuko said.

"So…" Katara said back mockingly.

Zuko rolled his eyes. Katara stuck her tongue out at him. Zuko tackled her playfully and started tickling her, his body hovering over her. She giggled and giggled, making Zuko smile his heart shattering smile. He stopped tickling her and looked into her eyes. He started leaning it. Her eyes began to close slowly.

"You have a leaf in your hair." Zuko said reaching up and pulling it away.

Katara huffed. She grabbed his shirt collar and pulled his lips to hers. His eyes widened, not expecting her to be so forward, but he was putty in her hands. He didn't want to admit it but he was definitely whipped. He rolled over pulling her with him deepening the kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck. He had his hand buried in her hair and the other on the small of her back. When they parted to breath, Zuko's lips traveled to her collarbone. She moaned lightly and pulled his lips back to hers. They fell asleep under the stars, Katara cuddled in Zuko's arms, his chin resting on the top of her head.

A/N: So cute! Review!!!


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